Probiotics are bacteria which confer health benefits to a host. Typically, cultures of probiotic bacterial strains are consumed or administered to individuals in order to add to and augment the naturally occurring bacteria population of the gut. A number of health benefits have been associated with probiotics, including reducing the incidence of cancer, diarrhoea and irritable bowel syndrome to name a few. Preliminary studies also indicate that probiotics can be useful in reducing serum levels of cholesterol and blood pressure and help modulate diabetes.
Prebiotics are dietary ingredients which can selectively enhance beneficial indigenous gut microbiota, such as lactobacilli or bifidobacteria, and are finding much increased application into the food sector. Prebiotics are non digestible food ingredients that are selectively metabolised by colonic bacteria which contribute to improved health. As such, their use can promote beneficial changes within the indigenous gut microbial milieu and they can therefore help survivability of probiotics. They are distinct from most dietary fibres like pectin, celluloses, xylan, which are not selectively metabolised in the gut. Criteria for classification as a prebiotic is that it must resist gastric acidity, hydrolysis by mammalian enzymes and gastrointestinal absorption, it is fermented by intestinal microflora and selectively stimulates the growth and/or activity of intestinal bacteria associated with health and well-being. There is no known selective prebiotic for Lactobacilli
Fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS, inulin and oligofructose) and galactooligosaccharides (GOS) have been demonstrated to fulfil the criteria for prebiotic classification repeatedly in human intervention studies.
Synbiotics are mixtures of probiotics and prebiotics that beneficially affect the host by improving the survival and implantation of probiotics in the gastrointestinal tract, by stimulating the growth and/or by activating the metabolism of one or a limited number of health-promoting bacteria, thus improving host welfare. A product containing oligofructose prebiotic and bifidobacteria probiotic could be considered to be a synbiotic if the mixture benefitted the host. Only a few synbiotics products are currently known.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a synbiotic composition which has a prebiotic component which allows for the specific growth of a given probiotic bacterial species or strain. It is also an object of the present invention to provide for a synbiotic composition which incorporates a Lactobacilli component in which the prebiotic component benefits the growth of lactobacilli species. A yet further object of the present invention is to provide a screening method for identify and matching probiotic bacteria (and strains thereof) and selective prebiotic components so as to form synbiotic compositions which accentuate host benefits.